From the House of Mars Everyday I go out into the world to work or play and every night I come home to the House of Mars to make sense of it all

Archive for the ‘patience’ Tag

I can’t seem to get off the phone. When I started writing about my flip phone, two posts back, I didn’t realize how hung-up I was on the subject. But the very next post, there I was back with more ranting and raving. And now, here I am again …….with one more thing to say and I wonder if it rings true with you.

Flip Will Sun

Is it just me or does anyone else hate call-waiting? Yes, my faithful old phone, Flip Will Sun, does have the feature, if you want to call it that. He offers it to me every once in a while but I always ignore him. The funny thing about it is the timing. I can be home all day, and the phone never rings – until it does ring. And there I’ll be, talking to Caller #1 when Flip will cut in to let me know there is now a Caller #2. I know I can glance at the screen to see who’s calling and then chose to accept or ignore the call, but I just ignore Flip instead……. and keep on talking. It doesn’t matter to me. First come, first served. And you know what? Caller #2 whoever he or she may be always leaves a message. I call back, and that’s that.

Sometimes I’m on the other end of the deal. I’m Caller #1 and in the middle of the conversation my friend will say “Um, could you hold on a second?”

“OK”, I replay politely but it’s not okay.

The person will come back and resume the conversation, but in my mind, it’s too late. It‘s like being with a man with a roving eye. He’s with you but monitoring the traffic that moves past. Maybe he’d rather be over there.

And there are the clueless people, the ones who have no idea how to work call waiting. They beg off with “Do you mind……” and put me on hold, but in two seconds they’re back with a querying “Hello?”

“It’s still me,” I have to tell them.

Poof – they’re gone again. I’m always waiting to hear a click signaling I’ve been disconnected; not because Caller #2 is better, but because they’ve lost of us.

Still other times I’m the call waiting, and I turn out to be the favored call. I usually tell if a person is already on the phone because my call is picked up immediately. And she’ll tell me “Hold on, while I get off this call.” I end up feeling bad for the person being dismissed. I really wouldn’t have minded if my friend had ignored call-waiting. Voice mail would have been fine. I’m not pushy. I never cut in on lines

Let me take time out for a disclaimer here – I realize some people have to be on top of who’s calling because they have kids, elderly parents, a sick loved one. I don’t begrudge call waiting if this is the situation.

Before I get myself in too much trouble here, let me just say I miss the days of the busy signal. If I got one, I hung up and tried again later. Granted I had some friends who could stay on that phone all night………..

…………but I’d just keep trying……..and trying. Maybe it wasn’t until the next day, but eventually I got through. Patience used to be a virtue.

Meta

I am trying to make sense of a world that changes daily. Blackberries,I-phones, I-pads, Bluetooths. No, blueteeth, that sounds better. And there's the rub, you see? For me, it's the words, not the things. Words are to describe moments of our lives, and that's it. That's what I'm all about. Unplugging and taking my time to experience everyday life so I can put it to words